■  2-,  2 


.  . . . . . . 

BETH-EL  PULPIT 


How  Shall  the  American 
Jew  Face  Anti-Semitism 


Sunday,  November  7th,  1920 


By 

Rev.  Dr.  SAMUEL  SCHULMAN 

Rabbi  of  Temple  Beth-El 
5th  Ave.  at  76th  St. 

New  York 


^  . . 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/howshallamericanOOschu 


How  Shall  the  American  Jew  Face  Anti-Semitism 

At  Temple  Beth-El,  Fifth  Ave.  and  76th  St.,  Sunday,  Nov.  7th, 

1920. 


By  Rabbi  Samuel  Schulman,  D.  D. 

Isaiah  54.17 :  “No  weapon  that  is  formed  against  thee,  shall  pros¬ 
per;  and  every  tongue  that  shall  rise  against  thee  in  judgment,  thou 
shalt  condemn.  This  is  the  heritage  of  the  servants  of  the  Lord,  and 
their  due  reward  from  Me,  saith  the  Lord.” 

We  come  together  to  resume  our  Sunday  Services,  in  times 
of  great  trial  for  the  American  Jew.  We  are  filled  with  sorrow. 
Our  pride  as  Americans  is  deeply  hurt.  The  very  love  of  our 
country  and  its  free  institutions,  our  very  joy  in  American 
traditions,  make  us  feel  all  the  more  humiliated  by  the  recent 
manifestations  of  a  spirit  of  anti-Semitism  in  this  land,  which 
till  now,  had  been  altogether  foreign  to  it.  At  last,  the  slimy 
serpent  from  across  the  seas,  has  crept  into  our  beloved  coun¬ 
try.  It  is  true,  that  the  large  masses  of  the  American  people 
are  totally  unaflfected  by  the  poison  which  the  Jew-baiters  of 
the  world,  would  infuse  into  the  body  politic  of  the  American 
people,  to  which  we  rejoice  to  belong.  It  is  true,  that  thus 
far,  the  efforts  of  the  anti-Semites  have  been  insidious  and 
subterranean.  As  far  as  my  observation  goes,  no  great  public 
newspaper  has  taken  note  of  them,  or  treated  them  with  any 
seriousness.  We  shall  not  hide  from  ourselves  the  danger 
that  this  anti-Semitic  poison  holds  for  us.  But  we  shall  not 
forget  that  we  are  sons  and  daughters  of  Israel,  which,  not  for 
the  first  time,  in  our  story,  rich  in  suffering  and  in  glory,  was 
made  in  time  of  world-crises,  the  scapegoat  for  the  sins  of 
humanity.  And  we  will  not  forget  that  we  are  not  only  Jews, 
but  we  are  American  Jews.  We  are  conscious  of  the  great 
privilege  of  being  part  of  the  American  people.  And  we  be¬ 
lieve  in  the  cleanness,  the  love  of  freedom,  the  passion  for  jus¬ 
tice  and  the  loyalty  to  fair  play  of  the  American  spirit.  We 
therefore  must  face  the  anti-Semitism,  which  a  few  misguided 
men  are  seeking  to  import  into  this  land,  with  an  attitude  of 
mind  and  a  courage  of  heart,  worthy  of  our  great  holy  heritage 


3 


as  upholders  of  a  religion,  for  which  thousands,  in  the  course 
of  Jewish  history,  have  been  ready  to  lay  down  their  lives. 
And  we  must  face  the  insidious  foe  with  a  fearlessness  worthy 
of  American  freemen. 

We  shall  not  become  unduly  excited.  We  shall  not  deal 
with  the  hideous  and  contemptible  thing  in  a  spirit,  either  of 
timidity,  or  levity,  or  pessimism.  We  are  not  afraid  of  it,  and 
we  do  not  consider  it  a  subject  for  vain  and  frivolous  speech¬ 
making.  It  will  not  do  to  fight  the  devil  with  his  own  fire. 
It  will  not  do  to  indulge  in  personalities.  For  we  can  be  as¬ 
sured  that  the  skins  of  those  who  have  committed  themselves 
to  the  anti-Semitic  agitation  in  this  country,  are  very  tough. 
Nor  will  we  allow  ourselves  to  be  embittered,  to  become  pes¬ 
simistic.  No  such  insults,  as  have  been  flung  at  us,  can  make 
us  for  a  moment,  cease  to  be  hopeful,  optimistic,  or  undermine 
our  joy  in  the  holy  heritage  of  our  American  patriotism.  We 
feel  here  thoroughly  at  home.  And  we  know  that,  in  warding 
off  from  ourselves  the  cowardly  blows  aimed  at  us,  we  are  at 
the  same  time,  protecting  the  integrity  of  the  American  spirit 
and  the  humanitarian  character  of  American  institutions.  The 
way  to  face  anti-Semitism,  it  seems  to  me,  is  with  faith  in  the 
God  of  our  fathers,  with  a  dignity  which  is  the  only  worthy 
expression  of  the  righteousness  of  our  cause.  We  must  face 
it  also  with  an  immovable  confidence  in  the  intelligence  and 
good  will  of  the  American  people.  We  must  meet  the  tragic 
problem,  forced  upon  us,  with  our  own  clear  and  earnest  think¬ 
ing  upon  the  meaning  of  our  heritage,  upon  the  significance  of 
our  Judaism,  And  we,  above  all,  must  regard  what  anti- 
Semitism  can  do  us,  with  comparative  indifference.  Our  main 
energy  should  be  devoted  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  education 
of  the  Jewish  community. 

The  anti-Semitism  which  confronts  us  in  this  land,  is  at 
nresent,  insignificantly  small  in  compass,  and  comparatively 
negligible  in  importance,  though  we  cannot  afford  to  disregard 
it.  Essentially,  it  is  an  importation.  It  confronts  us  in  the 
form  of  twO'  publications,  which  we  were  astonished  to  see 
that  publishers  of  repute,  could  lend  themselves  to  spread  in 
this  land.  It  was  a  shock  to  our  knowledge  of  the  fair  play 
of  Americans,  to  observe  that  one  publishing  house  in  Boston, 


4 


could  reproduce  what  bears  on  the  face  of  it,  all  the  insignia 
of  a  forged  document,  with  respect  to  whose  authenticity,  the 
publishers  themselves,  are  in  doubt.  This  is  a  reproduction 
of  the  so-called  Protocols  of  the  wise  men  of  Zion,  a  cryptic 
document,  originally  published  in  Russia  in  1905,  and  since 
then,  translated  into  English  in  England,  and  now  brought  to 
us  across  the  seas.  Any  intelligent  person  who  reads  these  so- 
called  speeches,  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  made  by  a 
secret  Jewish  society,  sees  at  a  glance,  that  they  are  fiction. 
The  Russian  author  gives  no  account  how  they  were  supposed 
to  come  into  his  hands.  They  bear  all  the  characteristics  of 
a  document  manufactured,  in  order  to  bolster  up  the  tottering 
power  of  Czarism  and  reaction.  Jews  are  represented  in  them 
as  conspiring  to  overthrow  Christian  civilization.  They  are 
presented  as  the  treacherous  plotters  against  all  government. 
They  are  made  hypocritically  to  stand  for  liberal  ideas,  only 
as  a  means  of  undermining  all  present  government  and  author¬ 
ity,  in  order  to  seize  the  power  for  themselves.  And  all  through 
the  documents,  the  intimation  is  given  that  it  is  the  Jews  who 
are  undermining  the  aristocracy,  which,  it  will  make  Americans 
laugh,  are  upheld  by  the  writer,  as  the  protectors  of  the  great 
masses  of  the  people.  Neither  in  thought  nor  in  language,  is 
there  anything  really  Jewish  about  this  document.  It  is  a 
plain  piece  of  propaganda,  manufactured  to  instil  hatred  in 
the  minds  of  Christian  peoples,  against  the  Jews.  Another 
publishing  house  of  this  city  has  published  a  book  entitled, 
“The  Cause  of  World  Unrest.”  This,  too,  bases  itself  on  these 
same  documents.  And  the  argument  of  this  book  is  that  the 
Jews  and  the  Free  Masons  are  in  a  great  conspiracy  to  achieve 
world-mastery.  The  book  itself,  hesitates  to  affirm  that  these 
documents  are  authentic.  But  there  are  constant  insinuations 
that  they  might  be  taken  as  true.  The  publishers  say  that  they 
“desire  to  point  out,  that  while  the  statements  presented  do 
reflect  upon  the  purpose  and  the  actions  of  certain  groups  of 
Jews  and  of  certain  groups  of  Free  Masons,  there  has  been 
no  intention  of  bringing  accusation  against  the  Jewish  race  as 
a  whole,  or  against  the  Free  Masons,  as  a  society.”  With  all 
that,  we  cannot  hold  the  publishers  of  this  volume  free  from 
the  charge  of  having  lent  themselves  to  a  propaganda  against 
the  Jew.  For  while  this  reservation  is  made,  it  is  of  course, 
apparent  to  any  intelligent  person  that  the  net  result  of  such 


5 


insidious  charges,  can  only  be  to  excite  the  prejudice,  the 
suspicion  and  the  animosity  against  Americans  of  Jewish  faith. 
In  addition  to  these  two  publications,  there  have  been  a  series 
of  articles  published  in  an  obscure  provincial  paper,  whose 
financial  support  is  derived  from  the  well  known  automobile 
manufacturer,  Mr.  Ford,  who,  I  would  say  in  charity,  has  been 
misled  into  spending  his  money  upon  this  futile,  but  hateful 
project,  even  as  he  was  led  to  enter  upon  the  Quixotic  enter¬ 
prise  of  taking  the  boys  out  of  the  trenches,  during  a  world- 
war,  which  was  the  outburst  of  forces,  that  only  a  man  with  a 
great  deal  of  self-assurance,  could  for  one  moment,  imagine 
that  he  could  control.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  man 
who  gives  the  money  to  encourage  such  publications,  is  being 
misled,  through  pure  ignorance,  and  that  he  is  being  taken 
advantage  of.  And  I  hope  that  he  will  wake  up  from  the  night¬ 
mare  into  which  he  has  allowed  himself  to  be  betrayed,  and 
will  permit  his  better  nature  to  assert  itself.  The  whole  move¬ 
ment,  as  illustrated  by  the  publications  mentioned,  is  quite  evi¬ 
dently  part  of  a  conspiracy  against  the  Jew.  The  charges  made 
are  laughable.  They  assume  a  stupidity  on  the  part  of  the  non- 
Jewish  world,  which  is  simply  incredible.  But  with  all  that, 
they  are  damnable. 

They  are  laughable,  because  to  those  who  know  history,  they 
are  merely  a  rehash  of  what  has  been  said  before.  In  times  of 
world-crisis,  the  Jew,  standing  out  as  a  conspicuous  target  for 
attack,  because  he  is  a  minority,  is  selected  to  be  the  scapegoat, 
in  order  that  the  attention  of  the  masses  be  deflected  from 
whatever  real  evils  there  may  exist  in  the  political  and 
economic  conditions  of  the  time.  It  is  an  old  game,  that  has 
been  played  again  and  again,  this  of  Jew-baiting,  in  order  to 
make  it  appear  that  the  Jew  is  the  enemy  of  the  world,  and  to 
concentrate  upon  him  the  hatred  of  the  masses.  And  this 
coupling  of  the  Jew  with  free  masonry,  is  also  not  new.  I 
know  nothing  about  free  masonry,  because  I  am  not  a  Mason. 
And  I  suppose  the  Masonic  organization  will  be  able  to  take 
care  of  itself.  But  I  do  know,  that  the  idea  of  there  being  a 
secret  power  amongst  the  Jews,  which  governs  Jewry  all  over 
the  world,  is  a  pure  lie,  made  of  whole  cloth.  If  such  lies  did 
not  sometimes  have  tragic  consequences  for  us,  we,  who  know 
the  actual  conditions  of  Jewry,  would  be  inclined  to  shrug  the 


6 


shoulder  and  laugh  at  them.  There  is  no  community  in  the 
world,  that  is  so  broken  up  into  parties  and  fragments,  that  so 
much  lacks  efficient  organization,  as  Israel.  There  is  no  Church 
in  which  there  is  so  little  central  authority  as  exists  in  the 
Synagogue.  There  is  no  spiritual  communion  in  which  there 
is  such  free  and  untrammelled  individualism  as  exists  in 
Judaism. 

True  it  is,  that  if  our  Jewish  coreligionists  suffer  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  our  hearts  go  out  to  them  in  sympathy, _  and 
we  do  what  we  can  to  bring  them  relief.  True  it  is,  that  Jews, 
as  is  natural  to  an  oppressed  and  persecuted  minority,  will  do 
what  they  can  for  the  emancipation  of  their  brethren  in  lands 
of  oppression,  and  bring  influence  to  bear,  to  obtain  for  them 
the  essential  human  rights,  which  America  guarantees  to  all, 
of  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  without  any 
prejudice  or  injustice,  because  of  differences  of  race  or  creed. 
But  when  the  impression  is  given  that  Jews  all  over  the  world, 
have  a  “foreign  policy  of  their  own,  with  a  definite  end  in 
view,”  then  it  must  be  said,  that  such  an  opinion  is  either  an 
expression  of  crass  ignorance,  or  of  wilful  malicious  distortion 
of  the  truth.  I  prefer  to  say  that  it  is  the  result  of  ignorance. 
And  in  general,  it  can  be  asserted,  that  much  of  the  prejudice 
against  the  Jew  is  simply  the  effect  of  ignorance.  The  Jews 
are  anything  but  unified  on  so-called  policies.  Nor  is  there 
today,  in  Jewry,  any  clear  and  definite  conception  of  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  Jew  in  the  world.  If  there  were  such  a  clear 
conception  of  what  the  Jew  stands  for,  the  Jewish  religion 
would  be  much  stronger,  and  Jewish  moral  and  spiritual  in¬ 
fluence  would  be  much  profounder  and  more  fruitful.  Actual 
Jewry  is  broken  up  into  religious  parties — Orthodox,  Con¬ 
servative,  Reform.  There  are  amongst  the  Jews,  Rationalists 
and  Mystics,  observers  of  the  letter  and  free  liberal  thinkers. 
There  is  the  almost  unbridgeable  chasm  between  the  extreme 
allegiance  to  the  old,  which  refuses  to  take  one  step  in  ad¬ 
vance,  and  adjust  Judaism  to  the  problems  of  life,  and  the 
most  radical  thought,  which  would  re-interpret  entirely,  the 
fundamental  principles  of  our  faith.  There  is  the  great  cleav¬ 
age  which  runs  through  contemporary  Jewry,  between  the  Zion¬ 
ists  and  the  anti-Zionists,  between  those  who  dream  dreams 
of  Palestine,  and  those  whose  aim  is  to  obtain  perfect  equality 


7 


of  rights  for  Jews  in  any  land  in  which  they  may  dwell,  and 
who  preach  the  ideal  of  a  perfect  incorporation  of  the  Jews 
in  the  body  politic,  to  which  they  belong;  who  maintain  the 
doctrine  that  Jews  are  only  Jews  in  religion,  but  belong  whole- 
souledly  to  the  respective  nations,  of  which  they  are  a  part. 
There  exists  today,  no  body  or  agency,  public  or  secret,  which 
can  in  any  way,  be  said  to  represent  Jewry  as  a  whole.  The 
gravamen  of  the  accusation  against  the  Jew,  is  a  fabric  of 
falsehood.  The  burden  of  proof  rests  upon  those  who  assert 
it.  We  are  well  aware  that  the  masses  can  easily  be  misled 
by  insinuations.  But  we  also  feel  that  truth,  in  the  end,  will 
conquer  and  destroy,  as  it  has  done  often  in  our  history,  this 
baseless  charge. 

Such  a  charge  assumes  the  stupidity  of  the  non-Jewish 
world.  The  documents  to  which  I  have  referred,  present  the 
non-Jewish  world,  with  its  statesmen,  with  its  great  leaders  in 
finance,  commerce  and  industry,  with  its  zealous  prophets  for 
righteousness,  with  its  liberal  thinkers,  with  its  self-sacrificing 
patriots,  with  its  fighters  for  human  rights — in  a  word,  the 
whole  of  the  civilization  of  Christendom,  as  secretly  and  un¬ 
consciously  manipulated  by  the  hand  of  the  Jew,  through  free 
masonry,  and  made  to  play  their  roles  as  automata,  of  which 
the  secret  power  holds  the  wires.  This  charge  makes  it  appear 
that  the  insignificantly  small  number  of  Jews  have  the  intellect, 
the  ability  and  the  world-wide  power  to  enslave  such  a  world. 
To  state  such  a  charge,  is  to  show  its  ridiculousness.  It  is  a 
sinister  tribute,  indeed,  to  Jewish  genius,  which  we  cannot 
accept.  But  if  it  were  only  ridiculous,  we  would  not  discuss 
it.  It  is  venomous  with  Jew-hatred.  Therefore,  we  must 
warn  our  fellow-citizens  against  the  untruthful,  unjust,  cruel 
and  inhuman  accusation,  which  is  being  made  against  Jews. 
The  Jewish  genius  has,  indeed,  given  much  to  the  world.  It 
can  fairly  be  stated  that  Western  civilization  is  inspired  by 
certain  fundamental  ideals  which  Hebrew  Prophets,  and  he 
whom  Christendom  regards  as  more  than  prophet,  gave  to  the 
world.  But  much  as  the  Jew  gave,  he  has  also  received  much 
from  the  world.  And  it  is  nothing  less  than  a  calumny  to 
accuse  him  of  seeking  to  overthrow  a  civilization,  whose  soul 
is  part  of  his  own  soul.  And  it  is  nothing  less  than  a  fanatical 
delusion  and  absurdity  to  say  that  the  “worm  Jacob’'  has  the 


8 


power  to  gnaw  at  and  destroy  that  civilization.  The  damnable 
ness  of  these  charges  consists  in  their  subtle  appeal  to  the 
latent  prejudice  which  exists  against  the  Jew,  and  which  they 
seek  to  inflame  into  active  animosity. 

We  must  face  this  thing  with  a  strong  faith.  The  destiny 
of  the  Jew  has  been  thus  far,  to  witness  to  God  in  suffering. 
But  no  weapon  formed  against  him  could  prosper,  so  as  to 
destroy  him,  and  no  tongue  that  rose  against  him  in  judgment, 
failed  of  being  condemned.  For  the  suffering  of  the  Jew  means 
his  martyred  service  on  behalf  of  the  Lord.  Our  faith  is 
strong  and  indestructible,  because  it  is  a  truth,  not  merely 
for  the  Jew,  but  for  all  men.  Judaism  is  a  message  that  binds 
men  together  in  unity.  There  is  utterly  foreign  to  it,  any 
belief  or  practice  that  makes  for  the  separation  of  men  in  sus¬ 
picion  and  hatred.  The  vital  breath  of  the  Jew  is  his  proclama¬ 
tion  of  the  Unity  of  God.  One  God  implies  one  humanity. 
The  religion  of  Israel  has  been  the  first  to  proclaim  the  brother¬ 
hood  of  mankind.  It  has  disparaged  any  claim  of  racial 
aristocracy,  by  its  enunciation  of  the  truth  that  man  is  created 
in  the  image  of  God.  Its  ethics  are  universally  human.  Their 
central  virtues  are  justice,  as  an  aspiration,  an  ideal,  in  the 
light  of  which  civilization  is  to  advance,  and  love  of  the  fellow- 
man,  which  is  to  be  the  driving  force  in  men,  impelling  them 
to  relieve  suffering,  to  remove  unrighteousness,  and  to  moralize 
and  sanctify  human  existence.  These  virtues  were  applied  to 
all  men,  irrespective  of  race  or  creed.  In  every  commandment 
in  our  Torah,  which  inculcates  in  us  sympathy  with,  and  com¬ 
mands  service  to  the  poor,  the  needy,  the  suffering  and  the 
dependent  there  is  always  included  the  stranger,  the  man  of 
alien  race.  The  love  of  neighbor  includes  always  the  love  of 
the  stranger.  The  vision  of  our  Prophets  was  not  centered 
in  the  glorification  of  Israel.  It  embraced  all  peoples,  and 
foresaw  the  time  when  they  would  be  united  as  one  family, 
to  do  the  will  of  their  Father  in  heaven.  And  when  they 
would  pilgrim  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  and  learning 
of  Flis  ways  of  righteousness,  they  would  win  peace.  The 
Jewish  religion  is  therefore,  a  religion  of  universal  application. 
It  is  hospitable  to  men  and  women  of  all  races.  It  forces  none 
to  join  it.  It  welcomes  all.  Our  sages  have  taught  us  to 
respect  and  honor  men  of  any  creed  or  race,  insofar  as  they 


9 


walk  by  the  light  of  their  conscience,  and  have  taught  that  the 
righteous  of  all  peoples  will  inherit  the  everlasting  life.  Israel, 
bearing  witness  to  these  truths,  has  with  infinite  patience, 
waited  for  them  to  spread  over  the  world.  And  while  waiting, 
it  has  paid  the  price  of  all  those  who  wish  to  walk  alone,  and 
as  a  minority,  in  accordance  with  what  they  regard  as  truth 
and  as  the  ideal.  Not  all  the  powers  of  a  world  in  arms 
against  the  Jew,  seeking  in  every  age  to  destroy  him,  prevailed 
against  him.  For  Israel  does  not  live  by  its  own  strength, 
but  by  the  power  of  the  spirit,  by  the  idea  which  makes  its 
soul,  by  the  Divine  purpose,  which  history  reveals. 

Relying  on  our  faith,  we  meet  these  attacks  with  the  dig¬ 
nity,  which  is  the  only  worthy  expression  of  the  righteousness 
of  our  cause.  During  the  last  century,  the  lot  of  the  Jew  was 
materially  improved  in  the  Western  World,  because  of  the 
enlightenment  and  liberalism  and  democracy  which  spread 
amongst  men.  Yet  the  spirit  of  reaction  always  threatened 
to  undo  what  was  achieved  for  the  Jew.  And  in  benighted 
lands,  even  the  Twentieth  Century,  found  the  Jew  oppressed, 
robbed  of  his  human  rights,  and  persecuted  as  in  the  darkest 
years  of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  the  spirit  of  truth,  of  justice, 
and  of  democracy  cannot  be  resisted.  Its  triumphant  march  is 
as  sure  as  is  the  victory  of  the  righteousness  which,  because  a 
righteous  God  is  ruling  the  world,  is  at  the  heart  of  things. 
It  was  therefore,  natural  that  Jews,  both  because  of  the  ideals 
of  justice  and  humanity  which  make  up  their  religion  and  be¬ 
cause  of  their  being  a  minority  that  suffered  from  the  oppres¬ 
sions  of  caste  and  privilege,  found  themselves  in  the  ranks  of 
liberalism  in  the  last  century.  We  have  no  apology  to  make  for 
the  champions  of  liberty  and  progress,  in  whose  front  ranks 
many  a  Jew  fought  for  human  rights.  And  it  is  equally  natural 
that  all  the  forces  of  darkness,  all  the  selfish  interests  in  Europe, 
which  would  fain  restore  mediaevalism  in  Church  and  State, 
should  with  sinister  cunning,  seeking  to  destroy  all  liberal 
thought,  single  out  the  Jew  as  the  protagonist  of  liberty  and 
progress,  and  playing  upon  racial  prejudice,  deceive  the  people, 
and  while  making  the  Jew  the  victim,  really  aim  at  re-enslav¬ 
ing  the  masses.  The  method  is  shrewd,  but  it  is  not  so  subtle 
as  not  to  be  easily  understood.  We  are  convinced  that  the 
true  salvation  for  the  Jew  in  the  Western  World,  as  anywhere 


10 


else,  is  bound  up  with  the  salvation  of  all  men.  Perfect  free¬ 
dom  and  justice  for  the  Jew,  can  only  come  with  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  perfect  freedom  and  justice  for  all  men. 

We  must,  however,  hurl  back  with  horror  the  suggestion 
that  there  is  any  natural  union  or  relationship  between  what  is 
called  Bolshevism,  with  its  mad  excesses,  in  Russia  to-day, 
and  Judaism.  This  pulpit  did  not  hesitate  when  Bolshevism 
first  arose  to  speak  in  clear  and  uncompromising  language  its 
opinion  of  this  movement.  There  is  as  much  compatibility 
between  Bolshevism  and  Judaism  as  there  is  between  evil  and 
good.  Judaism  is  the  very  contradiction  of  everything  that 
goes  to  make  up  Bolshevism.  For  Bolshevism  violates  every 
commandment  of  the  Decalogue.  It  is  an  irreligious,  aetheistic 
movement.  It  does  not  believe  in  God.  It  regards  all  religion 
as  a  superstition.  It  seeks  to  rob  men  of  their  belief  in  a 
God,  Who  loves  men  and  redeems  them.  It  does  not  recog¬ 
nize  true  freedom  of  the  individual,  and  therefore  treats  the 
individual’s  rights  with  contempt.  It  is  opposed  to  the  respect 
for  the  institution  of  property,  which  is  the  only  safeguard  of 
a  free  personality.  It  bears  false  witness  against  the  neighbor 
because  it  refuses,  judging  from  all  reports,  to  permit  freedom 
of  thought  and  the  honest  expression  of  opinion.  It  is  com¬ 
mitted  to  the  establishment,  by  brute  force,  of  the  rule  of  one 
element  of  the  people,  and  the  subjugation  of  the  large  ma¬ 
jority  that  dififers  with  it.  Nothing  is  more  dastardly  than 
to  make  Jews  responsible  for  Bolshevism  because,  forsooth, 
there  may  be  some  men,  who  having  had  Jewish  mothers  and 
bearing  Jewish  names  are  conspicuously  active  in  the  move¬ 
ment.  These  men  are  traitors  to  everything  Jewish.  They 
have  trampled  under  foot  every  Jewish  sanctity.  There  is  as 
much  in  common  between  a  real  Jew  and  a  Bolshevik,  as 
between  an  enlightened,  cultured  Christian  and  a  Hottentot. 
I  know  I  am  putting  this  in  very  strong  language.  But  it  is 
time  that  some  one  made  this  as  clear  and  as  strong  as  pos¬ 
sible.  We  have  at  least  the  satisfaction  of  not  having  waited 
for  anti-Semitism  to  cross  the  seas,  before  declaring  the  danger 
which  exists  for  the  Jew  in  the  possibility  of  anti-Semitism 
singling  out  a  Trotzky  and  his  allies,  as  the  representatives 
of  the  Jewish  spirit. 


11 


We  have  no  apology  to  make  for  the  Jew’s  love  of  knowl¬ 
edge,  of  freedom,  for  his  sympathies  with  the  masses  of  the 
people,  for  his  advocacy  of  democratic  self-government.  But 
we  reject  as  a  slander  the  intimation  that  the  madness  of  the 
Bolshevists  is  the  machination  of  a  secret  Jewish  conspiracy. 
The  masses  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  are  simple,  law-abiding, 
faithful  observers  of  their  religion,  and  are  only  too  glad,  in 
accordance  with  the  teachings  of  Judaism  in  all  ages,  to  prove 
their  loyalty  to  the  fatherland.  All  they  ask  is  for  the  rights 
of  a  free  citizenship,  which  will  enable  them  to  show  their 
patriotism  as  Jews  have  shown  it  in  all  Western  lands.  And 
when  the  madness  of  Bolshevism  will  be  swept  away,  and  a 
free  Russia  will  arise,  then  the  Jews  will  be  found  to  be  loyal 
upholders  of  their  newly  constituted  nationality  and  govern¬ 
ment.  The  record  of  the  Jew  in  Western  lands  is  clear.  The 
conflagration  of  the  world-war  has  gloriously  illumined  it.  On 
every  battlefield,  Jews  laid  down  their  lives  for  their  country. 
In  our  own  land,  the  Jews  gave  a  splendid  account  of  them¬ 
selves.  They  gave  more  than  their  percentage  of  the  popula¬ 
tion  to  the  service.  They  had  their  share  of  positions  of 
leadership.  They  got  their  share  of  honors  and  distinctions 
for  heroism.  Any  one  who  insinuates  that  the  Jew  cannot  be 
trusted  for  his  patriotism  is  deliberately  slandering  our  people. 

We  meet  this  thing  with  confidence  in  the  intelligence  and 
good-will  of  the  American  people.  All  we  need  is  to  warn 
America  against  the  treason  to  its  spirit,  which  misguided  men 
are  undertaking  to  foster.  We  can  rest  assured  in  the  common 
sense  and  fair  play  of  Americans.  But  we  do  think  that  the 
leaders  of  public  opinion  in  Qiristendom  ought  to  denounce 
the  insidious  attacks  upon  us.  We  believe  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  teachers  of  Christianity  in  this  country,  with  many  of 
whom  we  work  shoulder  to  shoulder,  on  behalf  of  every  good 
civic  cause,  to  speak  a  clear  word  of  protest  against  this  propa¬ 
ganda  against  the  Jew.  We  do  not  doubt  that  when  their 
attention  is  called  to  it,  then  in  a  spirit  of  righteousness  and 
chivalry,  they  will  tread  upon  the  serpent,  which  has  dared  to 
raise  its  head  and  hiss  the  hatred  of  the  European  anti-Semite 
into  the  land,  we,  as  Jews  and  Christians,  love  as  the  hope  of 
mankind.  We  have  the  right  to  ask  this  of  those  who  are 


12 


responsible  for  the  moral  education  of  the  nation.  And  we 
do  not  doubt  that  they  will  rise  to  the  opportunity. 

We  ourselves  are  called  upon  to  remove  the  evil  from  our 
midst.  We  ourselves  must  make  impossible  any  misunder¬ 
standing  which  is  only  too  readily  grasped  at  by  the  anti- 
Semite.  We  have  been  weltering  in  a  chaos  of  confused  ideas. 
Far  from  being  organized,  we  are  the  most  completely  unor¬ 
ganized  religious  community.  Far  from  being  strong  in  uni¬ 
on,  we  are  weak  through  our  dissensions.  And  our  weakness 
comes  from  the  weakness  of  Jewish  faith.  We  are  not  as 
powerful  and  influential  as  we  might  be,  despite  what  our 
enemies  say,  because  of  the  loss  of  loyalty  to  the  Jewish  re¬ 
ligion,  which  pervades  our  ranks.  We  must  think  clearly  and 
become  conscious  of  that  in  Which  alone  consists  our  only 
reason  for  existence,  as  a  distinct  and  diflferentiated  body  in 
the  world.  We  must  make  clear  to  ourselves  wherein  the 
Jewish  consciousness  consists.  We  must  refuse  to  recognize 
any  one  as  Jew,  who  is  not  in  some  way  affiliated  with  our 
religion.  We  must  not  allow  any  one  for  a  moment  to  be 
our  spokesman  who,  either  in  his  denial  of  Judaism  as  a 
religion,  spurns  the  heritage  of  the  fathers,  or  in  his  cham¬ 
pionship  of  political  and  social  doctrines,  radically  opposed  to 
all  Jewish  teachings,  misrepresents  us.  We  must  re-emphasize 
the  principles  of  American  Judaism,  which  have  been  clearly 
enough  expounded,  and  which  it  is  interesting  to  observe,  the 
anti-Semitic  literature  does  not  like  to  quote.  We  must  tell 
the  world  that  we  regard  Judaism  as  a  religion  only,  and 
that  we  claim  only  one  kind  of  nationality,  and  that  is  our 
American  nationality.  We  must  make  this  American  Judaism 
known.  We  spend  money  on  many  things,  but  we  do  not  spend 
enough  to  enlighten  the  world  with  respect  to  our  beliefs,  to 
the  principles  by  which  we  actually  live,  as  Americans  and 
Jews.  And  as  all  the  signs  point  to  the  leadership  in  the 
world,  of  American  Israel,  we  must  hold  up  our  ideals  to  the 
Jewry  of  the  world  so  that  Jews  all  over  the  world  consider 
themselves  only  a  religious  community  and  refuse  to  be  re¬ 
garded  as  an  alien,  national  minority  group.  We  should,  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  minimise  race  and  magnify  our 
religion.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  pure 
Jewish  race.  There  is  an  historic  Jewish  community.  There 


13 


is  Israel,  with  an  unbroken  tradition  of  two  thousand  years 
since  the  destruction  of  the  political  nationality  of  the  Jews 
who  lived  in  Palestine.  This  historic  Israel  is  a  religious  com¬ 
munity  and  nothing  else.  To  it  there  were  admitted  in  the 
past  men  and  women  of  non- Jewish  blood.  What  is  called  the 
Jewish  race  to-day  is  very  mixed.  The  physiognomies  of 
Jews  coming  from  different  parts  of  the  world  testify  to  the 
fact  that  there  has  been  a  strong  infiltration  of  non- Jewish 
blood.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  for  us  to  cease  talking  of 
the  Jewish  race,  and  to  emphasize  the  Jewish  spiritual  com¬ 
munion.  Israel  has  survived,  not  because  of  its  racial  power, 
but  because  of  the  ideas  which  kept  it  alive.  And  we  should 
indeed  unite  and  organize  upon  the  basis,  not  of  race,  but  of 
religion.  So  long  as  we  tolerate  the  idea,  in  whatever  atten¬ 
uated  a  form,  of  a  racial  basis  of  organization  we  expose  our¬ 
selves  to  the  greatest  misunderstandings.  We  provide  mate¬ 
rial  which,  in  a  spirit  of  injustice  and  cruel  malice,  the  anti- 
Semite  pounces  upon.  We  make  ourselves  responsible  for 
those  who  we  know  are  outcasts  from  Jewish  society,  because 
while  they  may  claim  to  have  so-called  Jewish  blood  in  their 
veins,  belie  by  their  lives,  any  right  of  claiming  the  glorious 
name  of  Jew.  For,  as  our  sages  say,  “a  Jew  is  one  who  pro¬ 
claims  and  maintains  the  unity  of  God  in  the  presence  of  the 
world.”  There  can  be  and  there  ought  to  be  only  one  kind  of 
Jewish  brotherhood  and  that  is  brotherhood  which  is  the 
“heritage  of  the  servants  of  the  Lord.” 

Lastly  we  should  not  worry  too  much  about  what  the  anti- 
Semites  may  do  to  us.  What  should  fill  us  with  great 
anxiety,  is  the  crying  indifference  to  Judaism  as  a  religion, 
which  has  seized  large  numbers  of  our  people.  What  should 
fill  us  with  great  concern  is  the  injury  that  we  ourselves  are 
doing  to  our  sacred  heritage.  What  we  need  is,  not  so  much 
a  campaign  against  anti-Semitism.  Lies  will  die  of  themselves. 
The  healthy  organism  of  the  American  people  will  throw  off 
these  germs  which,  like  the  anarchy  which  threatens  to  sub¬ 
vert  American  institutions  by  force,  has  been  imported  from 
abroad.  The  only  way  to  render  anti-Semitism  futile,  is  by 
a  revival  of  Jewish  faith.  What  we  need  is  a  great  campaign 
of  religious  education  in  this,  the  greatest  Jewish  community 
of  the  world.  We  must  set  our  spiritual  house  in  order.  We 


14 


need  to  win  back  the  thousands  who  have  drifted  away  from 
the  heritage  of  their  fathers,  and  who,  many  of  them  cut  off 
from  the  root  of  their  religion,  have  ceased  to  produce  its 
noble  fruitage  in  character,  and  its  fine  outflowering  in  the 
graces  of  the  spirit.  If  anti-Semitism,  a  scourge  which  again 
and  again  in  the  course  of  our  history  has  made  us  suffer, 
will  prove  a  challenge  to  our  Jewish  conscience,  it  will  be  no 
unmixed  evil.  To  thy  tents,  O  Israel,  should  be  our  battlecry. 
Back  to  the  sanctuary  which  has  been  neglected  by  the  great 
and  the  little,  the  classes  and  the  masses,  the  leaders  and  the 
led — is  the  call  of  the  crisis  for  us.  Our  only  hope  is  in  our 
loyalty  to  the  everlasting  God  Whom,  if  we  serve,  we  deserve 
to  live,  and  Whom,  if  we  forget,  we  deserve  to  perish  as  a 
people  of  Israel.  If  we  serve  the  God  of  our  fathers  with 
renewed  faith,  with  the  dignity  of  self-reliance,  with  the  con¬ 
fidence  in  the  fairness  and  good-will  of  our  fellow  citizens, 
with  a  whole-souled  self-consecration,  then  we  know  that 
no  weapon  that  is  formed  against  us  shall  prosper.  And 
every  tongue  that  shall  rise  against  us  in  judgment,  shall  be 
condemned.  For  our  reward  is  certain.  It  is  “from  Me,  saith 
the  Lord.” 


15 


